Thread: Nvidia MCP73 chip

Chipmaker Intel just seems to be jumping from strength to strength. There's no doubt left that its Core 2 Duo and Quad processors are the most powerful chips available in the market today. And even as droves of former AMD users continue to upgrade to the Intel platform, chipset manufacturer Nvidia has decided to follow suit.

Long respected for its Nforce series chipsets, Nvidia has always offered a high performance solution for AMD processors in the recent past. That's because AMD processors were a highly attractive option for computer enthusiasts till very recently. Even in the early days of the Core 2 architecture, AMD chips were still priced a little better and were thus still worthy contenders. These days, it's only brand loyalty (or a really good discount) that will make a serious gamer go with AMD over Intel.

In fact it was partly Nvidia's stellar chipsets that propelled AMD to the heights of popularity that it reached. With no chipsets of its own to offer (unlike Intel), AMD certainly did benefit from having such an able partner on its side. Though they made chipsets for both processor manufacturers,the Nvidia AMD partnership has always been trusted by gamers and enthusiasts alike. Now, Nvidia's latest chipset release is a show of support for the Intel, current leader in the CPU race It's a low-end solution, designed to compete with the likes of Intel's own G33 but with a number of killer features that should see it picking up in popularity very quickly.

Examining the MCP73
First of all, here are the two most important things you need to know about this release. First, it's Nvidia's first chipset for Intel processors with an integrated graphicsl That's right; this is a serious milestone in chipset development. Second, it supports only single channel memory. While this might seem like
a serious oversight or anachronism in this day and age, a good enough implementation could still provide enough value to budget-conscious buyers who would only buy a single stick of RAM anyway.

The Mep 73 uses a single-chip design, meaning the graphics core, memory controller and input/output controllers are all on the same silicone die. Not only does this mean that we're about to see some very powerful boards in smaller, more compact sizes, but also that they'll be far cheaper to produce and should be priced quite attractively in the market. First off, the graphics core! Nvidia refers to its IGPs as "Motherboard GPUs", a term that leads us to hold high expectations for their performance. MCP73 series boards will all come with a DirectX 9-compliant GeForce 7-class graphics processor (think Shader Model 3.0 support and High Dynamic Range contrast effects in games).

In fact, the top-end MCP73PV is being touted as a 'Discrete GPU replacement', but it's important to note the market segment these boards will be targeted at before making any assumptions
about their performance. However with HD video and home theatre PCs being the latest buzzwords, we're extremely surprised to see that not even the top-end variant of this chipset supports Nvidia's PureVideo H D-acceleration technology. This would have made it conducive for building a small-form-factor HTPC.

The memory controller supports upto DDR2 800 RAM, but only in a single¬channel configuration. However the FSB can go up to 1333 M Hz to support current and upcoming Core 2 Duo and Quad processors. Nvidia touts the fact that the MCP73 is the only solution available that has earned the Windows Vista Premium Capable certification with 1 GB of RAM in a single-channel configuration. This again will appeal to value-conscious buyers.

One area where the MCP73 really shines is in its array of connectivity options. For storage, there are four SATA ports, one IDE channel that supports two PATA drives and one floppy drive connector. You'll also find 10 USB ports, two FireWire 400 ports, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, one serial port (but no parallel), and one RJ45 connector that supports Gigabit Ethernet on all but the lowest variant of the chipset.

Expansion comes in the form of 18 PCle lanes and a legacy PCI controller. Video outputs come in the form of onboard HDMI, component, DVI and/ or VGA ports depending on the chipset variant and motherboard manufacturer.

The Early Bird
The MSI P6NGM is the first motherboard based on an MCP73PV chipset to make it to the CHIP Test Center. Featuring the GeForce 7150/nForce 630i combination, this board represents the top-of-the-line MCP73 configuration. It's a neat micro¬ATX board in the typical typical tomato red color favored by MSI, and will retail for approximately Rs 5,000 in Indian markets in the very near future.

The board implements nearly every feature that the chipset affords it. opting for set of VGA and HDMI outputs to handle the video. Expansion comes in the form of one PCI E x16, one PCle x1, and two regular PCI slots. To top it all off, there's 8channel High Definition sound onboard, courtesy the Realtek ALC888 chip.
The layout of the board is fairly neat. with the SATA ports clustered in the lower left corner and the 24-pin power connector close by.

We were particularly pleased to see color coding on every motherboard header, making it much easier to manipulate connectors in a small case. Considering this board's target market, we don't think anyone will have to worry about an extra-long high-end graphics card blocking access to anything. The chipset, our center of attention, requires a relatively simple passive heatsink-none of the elaborate copper piping we've seen in the recent past is of any necessity herel Though, should you want to invest in an elaborate cooling solution, you'll find only low-rise capacitors and plenty of open space around the CPU socket.



Test results
We ran the P6NGM through our usual battery of hardware tests, but with special emphasis on the graphics subsystem. We found that the memory bandwidth was weaker than comparable dual-channel chipsets, but f?r better than any single-channel performance we've seen before. There were no bottlenecks between the CPU and the various subsystems on the board.

We were quite impressed with the 3DMark 05 score of 1011, the highest we've ever recorded for integrated graphics. Gaming at even medresolutions was below acceptable, though Nvidia claims the graphics horsepower will make 3D desktop applications such as Google Earth come alive. Performance in our real-world tests didn't take as big a hit as we anticipated would happen due to the single-channel memory controller, but we sorely missed PureVideo acceleration when our HD videos stuttered a little and caused a 40 percent jump in CPU usage.

On a positive note, the board's temperatures were well within reason, even while being put through our tests. on clusion We had high expectations of the MSI P6NGM, and we were not disappointed with the overall performance scores. We're pretty enthusiastic about the slew of motherboards we're sure to see in
the near future featuring MCP73-based chipsets. While they might not unseat Intel's G33 and even its older G965- based offerings, they will certainly bring a compelling set of features to the market at attractive prices.

While gaming with any relatively recent titles is pretty much out of the question, boards based on this chipset still make a compelling value proposition. Considering its tight integration, low cost and low heat dissipation, it seems well suited to small form factor personal computers. We'd also love to see laptop versions of this chipset in the near future.

Nvidia's new equation with Intel bodes well for computer enthusiasts. Rumor has it that in a little while we'll see the launch of the MCP79 series of high-end chipsets that bring a DirectX 10 IGP to the table. So, whether or not Intel likes its new competition in the IGP chipset market, they're certainly going to be pleased with the effect it will have on their CPUs.